Vintage Sketchy Girls

Hi everyone!

My first blog post of Anna's blog....eek! This month Anna has us working with her Sketchy Girls Artwork.

At first it took my a little while to get going with this months content. After watching the Patreon videos and looking through the collage sheets I felt really inspired, and several ideas were bubbling away, I was itching to get going! However, when it came to actually sitting down to do some arting, I kept hesitating. I don't know whether it is because Anna's style is so different to mine or the fact, that although life drawing is my area of interest, I never actually draw or paint faces. Always bodies, never faces. It didn't feel natural at first, and I felt my pictures were coming out very stilted but I preserved and boy am I glad I did!

I took Anna's advice about creating in pen and ran with it. I'm not a big pre sketcher, at most I put a few points of reference and then just dive straight in splodging paint around. When I do this I almost always use pencil, never pen, so sketching this way felt quite alien. You'll see from my pieces the progression and journey (it honestly did feel like one) I make from hesitancy to confidence.

The 1920s and 1930s Art Deco paintings and portrayals of women are a massive influence in my art at the moment. I just cannot get enough of heavy lines and victory rolls. As such I've tried to place a vintagey spin on my sketchy girls.

This is one of my early attempts and one I didn't run with and subsequently finish. You might be asking why I'm sharing this it if isn't complete. But I find an important lesson in it, and one Anna is always reiterating. Well I guess it is two lessons really; 1. Practice, Practice, Practice and 2. Always keep the things you create. The temptation with pencil sketches is to erase them when you're not happy with them, but in doing so you remove your ability to see the development and improvements you make. I'll hold my hand up and say that I'm the first to break this last lesson!

I tried to re create a classic 1920s bob and used one of Anna's collage pieces as a base for her face, however, I feel there's more of an Egyptian vibe to her. Not quite what I had intended but hey.

I decided that whilst I was pushing myself outside of my comfort zone I'd take it one step further and work with watercolours too. Acrylics are my safe place, watercolours I've always loved but never quite mastered. So mixing colours for skin tone and blending was a bit of a challenge. I used the back of the page to swatch test. I kept this one as I sketched it entirely in pen. I didn't feel tempted to pick up a pencil at all, but I did have a bit of a hiccup with her nose and lips but it works.

I then used some of the bits from the collage sheets to re create big puffed coat lapels in keeping with the 1920s/30s look, she felt quite glamorous so I gave her quite a pale complexion with softly rouged cheeks, contrasted with bright red lipstick. I wasn't feeling conventional hair so added a twist by opting for rainbow hair coloured pin curls. The curvy waves really helped to create a sense of volume, and the colours inspired by Annas artwork really pop against her pale skin tones.

My 'Women's Land Army' inspired lady. I've used a mix of acrylics, pencils and watercolour here and felt a little more at home. I love the contrast of the pink head wrap against the greens and khaki of her uniform. My love for victory rolls is evident here, big bold curls, initially she didn't have a fringe, but  I felt her face seemed too harsh so I added the fringe to bring back some softness. I've added a mixture of colours to create natural highlights in her hair and used a stiff bristled brush to recreate the fine texture.

My final piece is my beautiful Flapper Girl, I am absolutely over the moon with this piece (am I allowed to say that?).

I began in the same way as my previous sessions and sketched my initial outline, and then went straight in with her jet black bob. At first I thought it might be a little harsh but I think it gives a real sharpness and boldness to her, a real contrast to the soft watercolour background. Her headband, using Anna's abstract piece in the collage sheets, and then accented with gold really pops against the dark hair.

Every Flapper Girl needs *the* perfect dress, I really wanted to create a sense of movement and texture and felt that painting it just wouldn't provide this. So I used Anna's paint strokes and then made a series of cuts and gently ruffled them then tipped them with gold pen. The end result is really quite effective. I carried this touch of gold to her feather headpiece and the straps of her dress to really pull the ensemble together.

So that's all from me :) can't wait to see what you all create and to hear what pieces of Anna's work have inspired you! See you next time guys x

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